Museum closed for exhibit renovation

The Little Traverse Historical Society closed its museum at Bayfront Park this past weekend in preparation for some significant updates to one of the exhibit areas in the former railroad depot.

Updated exhibit cases and a gathering space that will allow groups to sit for presentations are the major components of the project in the former train depot's east wing, historical society director Candace Fitzsimons said.

"We have some major renovation work on exhibit cases," she said. "We didn't want any of our visitors to get hurt when the carpenters are moving things around."

Closing the museum a couple of months prior to its normal winter shutdown date for the start of work will allow the society to meet a deadline necessary to qualify for state grant assistance, she added.

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With help from the city of Petoskey, the society applied for a grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's coastal management program for waterfront amenities, receiving $75,000. Including matching funds from the Frey Foundation and other sources, in-kind donations and other grants that are pending, Fitzsimons said the society likely will commit a total of about $138,000 to the project.

Alanson designers and fabricators Ben and Brooke Anderson will assist the historical society with the project. Boyne City graphic designer Joann Sondy is contributing as well.

With cooperation from the museum staff and other contributors, Sondy said the work should provide her with an exciting opportunity.

"It's going to be interesting," she said. "That entire wing does need a little modern touch to it."

The display areas at the east end of the museum will be reconfigured in a way that will allow 15 new components to be added to the society's exhibit on the passenger pigeon.

"The whole thing will take on a chronological order as to the importance our area played in the extinction of the passenger pigeon," Fitzsimons said.

In the mid-19th century, some five billion of this native North American bird were believed to exist. By the 1870s, it was nearing extinction. One of the bird's last major nesting territories was located in Northern Michigan. Here, millions of the birds - with their meat considered a delicacy and feathers prized for use in pillows and beds - were harvested in the species' waning years.

Fitzsimons said area residents did learn a lesson from the experience, with some spearheading efforts later to protect other species from extinction.

New climate control features will allow for better preservation of the museum's stuffed passenger pigeon specimen, one of less than 50 in existence, she added.

The passenger pigeon display will be presented in chronological context with other local historical topics.

The historical society acquired the abandoned Chicago and West Michigan Railroad depot for museum use in 1971.

Although the museum will remain closed through April, historical society exhibits elsewhere will continue.

At the society's recently-opened museum in Bay Harbor's Village district, 40 of Norman Rockwell's cover illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post will go on display for the public Sunday, Oct. 19, and remain through the end of 2003. A donation is suggested for those viewing the collection.

The holiday-themed images, dating from 1916 to 1963, will be presented in the context of local history.

Fitzsimons said her organization also is launching an exhibit of local Native American art in the newly-built terminal at Pellston Regional Airport this week. It, too, will remain on display through the holiday season, with other local history exhibits then appearing at the airport on a quarterly basis.